21 votes

IT helpdesk request?

Posted by kingofsnake (edited )
Tags: microsoft, ask.help, hardware, hard disk drives, windows, tech support

I'm frankly all out of ideas on how to solve an issue, so I'm hoping that the Tildes community might have a suggestion for solving this issue.

I have an 8tb HDD that spins up and is recognized by windows when plugged into a USB HDD dock, but in another machine (also running windows 10) the drive can't be seen (**this is using data connections directly to the motherboard).

There is:

  • Nothing mechanically wrong with the drive as it reads/writes on the HDD dock.
  • I've tested the drive as an NTFS formatted drive and as unallocated.
  • Neither Disk Manager nor the bios sees the drive.
  • Multiple SATA cables and Power jacks tested on working drives and the non working drive.

Open to thoughts, prayers or possible solutions.

Thank you!

20 comments

  1. [5]
    patience_limited
    Link
    What vintage is the BIOS and chipset on the machine that can't see the 8 TB hard drive? Pre-UEFI (circa 2010) systems, if I recall correctly, can't see partitions larger than 2.2 TB due to 32-bit...

    What vintage is the BIOS and chipset on the machine that can't see the 8 TB hard drive? Pre-UEFI (circa 2010) systems, if I recall correctly, can't see partitions larger than 2.2 TB due to 32-bit address space limitations.

    13 votes
    1. [4]
      kingofsnake
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Good one - I hadn't thought of this. It's an Intel i76700k/GA-H170-D3HP and I haven't updated the bios since I bought the thing back in 2016. Odd that it'd affect only one of two very similar...

      Good one - I hadn't thought of this. It's an Intel i76700k/GA-H170-D3HP and I haven't updated the bios since I bought the thing back in 2016.

      Odd that it'd affect only one of two very similar drives from the same period, but it's possible.

      I've never updated a bios before. A little nervous. . .

      8 votes
      1. Narry
        Link Parent
        It might take down the system, but usually BIOS updates are pretty stable these days, even with older systems. Just don't randomly flail on your keyboard or mouse.

        It might take down the system, but usually BIOS updates are pretty stable these days, even with older systems. Just don't randomly flail on your keyboard or mouse.

        2 votes
      2. [2]
        Pavouk106
        Link Parent
        I run 4TB HDDs on i5-4670 which is even older than your CPU. I also run one 6TB HDD on some i3-3xxx which is once again even older. Just wanted to add here... It still can be old BIOS issue...

        I run 4TB HDDs on i5-4670 which is even older than your CPU. I also run one 6TB HDD on some i3-3xxx which is once again even older. Just wanted to add here...

        It still can be old BIOS issue though.

        EDIT: Just saw the post about 3.3V reset... Well, nevermind.

        1. kingofsnake
          Link Parent
          On looking at the BIOS update, the GIGABYTE basically talks you down when it comes to updates around hard drives which I found interesting. Thanks for your help. Without contributions here, I...

          On looking at the BIOS update, the GIGABYTE basically talks you down when it comes to updates around hard drives which I found interesting.

          Thanks for your help. Without contributions here, I probably would have ditched the HDD for one that worked.

          2 votes
  2. [13]
    xk3
    Link
    Just to be clear, you are using the USB HDD dock in both cases? What is the drive model number?

    when plugged into a USB HDD dock but in another machine
    ...
    Multiple SATA cables and Power jacks tested

    Just to be clear, you are using the USB HDD dock in both cases?

    What is the drive model number?

    5 votes
    1. [12]
      kingofsnake
      Link Parent
      Ah - no, the dock in the case where it works and a sata/PCI in the non working case. WD80EZZX and WD80EZAZ are both plugged into the machine with the ZX working and the AZ the one that's not...

      Ah - no, the dock in the case where it works and a sata/PCI in the non working case.

      WD80EZZX and WD80EZAZ are both plugged into the machine with the ZX working and the AZ the one that's not working on my 2016 motherboard but it works on a 2022 motherboard.

      1 vote
      1. [11]
        xk3
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        https://forums.sandisk.com/t/liberated-wd80ezzx-does-not-work-without-enclosure/403587 It's probably a 3.3v reset pin problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gBKV8XXG4k kapton tape will be a bit...

        WD80EZZX

        https://forums.sandisk.com/t/liberated-wd80ezzx-does-not-work-without-enclosure/403587

        It's probably a 3.3v reset pin problem

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gBKV8XXG4k

        kapton tape will be a bit safer than electric tape but do what you gotta do :-)

        To be clear, this isn't a motherboard problem but a PSU / SATA specifications problem. You could probably swap PSUs on the machines instead of taping anything--or just use the drive from your HDD dock (which isn't sending voltage to the 3rd pin which is why it works)

        13 votes
        1. kingofsnake
          Link Parent
          It worked. Thanks a million!

          It worked. Thanks a million!

          7 votes
        2. [6]
          goose
          Link Parent
          As soon as I read the second sentence, "Ctrl +F > tape", and found your comment. OP, it's most likely this, it's a well known thing among the drive shucking/data hoarding community.

          As soon as I read the second sentence, "Ctrl +F > tape", and found your comment.

          OP, it's most likely this, it's a well known thing among the drive shucking/data hoarding community.

          6 votes
          1. [5]
            kingofsnake
            Link Parent
            Amazing, thanks for the vote of confidence. As for Hard Drive shucking - that's a term used for repurposing server drives or something?

            Amazing, thanks for the vote of confidence. As for Hard Drive shucking - that's a term used for repurposing server drives or something?

            1. [4]
              goose
              Link Parent
              "Shucking" is the defacto phrase for removing a hard drive from its enclosure to use internally. For what it's worth, if you're looking to use multiple of these drives, SAS backplanes can (often)...

              "Shucking" is the defacto phrase for removing a hard drive from its enclosure to use internally.

              For what it's worth, if you're looking to use multiple of these drives, SAS backplanes can (often) accept SAS and SATA drives, without having to do any taping or modifications for the 3.3v pin. My home server is an old 4U SuperMicro chassis I bought off eBay with a 24 bay SAS backplane. 12 of my 18 drives are WD drives that came in enclosures which I bought on Black Friday sales and shucked.

              2 votes
              1. [2]
                sorkceror
                Link Parent
                Is drive shucking still a reasonable way to get new drives? I might need to upgrade my NAS storage sometime soon-ish and I'm pretty sure prices have actually gone up since I bought my last lot....

                Is drive shucking still a reasonable way to get new drives? I might need to upgrade my NAS storage sometime soon-ish and I'm pretty sure prices have actually gone up since I bought my last lot.
                I'm going to guess most of the external drives you buy are SMR rather than CMR, but I don't think that matters too much for my use case.

                1 vote
                1. goose
                  Link Parent
                  SMR vs. CMR definitely matters, depending on what you're doing with the drives. Shucking a black Friday drive is still one of the best prices you can get for a new SATA drive. I've moved more...

                  SMR vs. CMR definitely matters, depending on what you're doing with the drives. Shucking a black Friday drive is still one of the best prices you can get for a new SATA drive.

                  I've moved more towards SAS drives, since they tend to last longer. Faster rotational speeds, better heat tolerances, and generally higher lifespans. Now a days I tend to buy new or open box SAS drives on eBay, only from within the US (never China, where the risk of a fake drive tends to be higher).

                  I have a script I wrote to extensively test the health of the drive once I receive it. The script takes about 4-5 days to run on a 16 TB SAS drive, it does:

                  1. Verifies hours against FARM hours, if a Seagate drive
                  2. A SMART long test
                  3. Checks for bad blocks (badblocks)
                  4. Formats the disk to zfs and fills it with test data (f3write)
                  5. Reads the test data (f3read)
                  6. Verifies the data integrity (zfs scrub)

                  Once a drive passes all these tests, I feel confident trusting the drives despite them coming from eBay. I can share a version of the script, if desired.

                  1 vote
        3. Wulfsta
          Link Parent
          Beat me to it by a mile - I am running a shucked 10TiB HDD that I had to tape the pin on, and this sounded like exactly the same issue.

          Beat me to it by a mile - I am running a shucked 10TiB HDD that I had to tape the pin on, and this sounded like exactly the same issue.

          3 votes
        4. l_one
          Link Parent
          Oh cool, it's been forever since I saw this issue with shucked drives!

          Oh cool, it's been forever since I saw this issue with shucked drives!

          1 vote
  3. [2]
    sparkle
    Link
    Does the non-working machine's BIOS have USB peripherals enabled? Some don't enable this by default. Do other USB drives/sticks show up? Does the USB dock work with ANY drive on the second machine...

    Does the non-working machine's BIOS have USB peripherals enabled? Some don't enable this by default. Do other USB drives/sticks show up?

    Does the USB dock work with ANY drive on the second machine that won't recognize the 8TB? Or is the issue limited to just this particular drive?

    If other drives work, that rules out the USB dock being the primary issue and shifts focus to some incompatibility between the drive itself and Windows. If it's not recognized at all though, I would guess an issue with that machine's USB controller - hardware failure or driver issue or misconfiguration, difficult to know.

    Out of curiosity, is it a USB-C dock? Is it possible that it's actually Thunderbolt and one computer supports it while the other doesn't, despite both connectors and receptacles being identical? Or any of the other stupid USB-C intricacies/incompatibilities?

    2 votes
    1. kingofsnake
      Link Parent
      I should have specified (now fixed) the non working setup has the HDD in question connected via the MB (along with 6 other drives plus one other HDD of similar model number and size - WD80EZZX and...

      I should have specified (now fixed) the non working setup has the HDD in question connected via the MB (along with 6 other drives plus one other HDD of similar model number and size - WD80EZZX and WD80EZAZ).

      I will try the dock on this system as well. Thanks for the tip.

      1 vote